How to play Blu-ray Discs in VLC on Ubuntu

If you have a Blu-ray player on your computer you cannot just insert a Blu-ray disc and start to play it in your favourite media player, the reason is that Blu-rays are encrypted and hence require the correct codecs. Chances are when you bought your Blu-ray player it came with a CD which provided its own media player and would allow you to watch Bly-ray movies.

To no surprise this will only work on Windows, so people like myself who use a Linux based OS are left in the dark. It is only recently that I discovered a post on another site which explained how to install the codecs so that you can play a Blu-ray disc that came out before 2012 in VLC media player on Ubuntu. The original post can be visited below:

http://www.webTable Cellupd8.org/2012/08/how-to-get-encrypted-blu-rays-working.html

This includes information on why it is only Blu-rays before 2012 and a more detailed guide. If you cannot be bothered to read the post then you can just follow the steps below:

• Open your terminal
• Type/copy in the 5 command lines below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vlc libaacs0 libbluray-bdj libbluray1
mkdir -p ~/.config/aacs/
cd ~/.config/aacs/ && wget http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/files/KEYDB.cfg3

• Open VLC media player
• Select Media > Open Disc 
• Set Disc Selection to BluRay
• Make sure that the No disc menus is ticked
• Browse for the Blu-ray disc
• Click Play

Your Blu-ray will now be able to play.

At least now I can begin to increase my Blu-ray collection and watch movies in their HD form.